Introduction to basic SEO
In the digital world, having a highly visible presence is vital to customers finding you. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) can boost your website’s visibility and drive organic traffic. Organic traffic means visitors to your website who find you freely in the search engine, without you paying for advertising.
In this blog post, we’ll cover the essentials of basic SEO for small businesses in New Zealand and give you some tips to get started.
Research and use keywords
Perform keyword research to identify relevant terms your core audience searches for. Brainstorm words and phrases you think your customers would type into Google or any search engine to find you.
Verify your ideas and then write relevant keywords strategically into your website. (See Optimise on-page elements below.)
A very simple way for beginners to start keyword research is to look at the terms in your web stats that your site has been found for. Log on to your web hosting, and go to Metrics to view them.
Have a look at companies in the same business as you who rank higher than you in Google. Identify their keywords and see how they, or alternate words or phrases, might be effective on your site.
Even as a small business you will likely have competitors in your New Zealand town or suburb that you can learn from.
Here’s a great article from SEO experts Ahrefs on how to do key word research.
Optimise on-page elements with keywords
To boost your site’s search engine potential, use keywords to optimise page titles, page content, headings, URLs, and create unique meta descriptions and titles; optimise images with keywords in alt tags and the image file name.
Use them several times throughout the content in a web page, but ensure the page reads well and doesn’t look like you have simply dropped them in.
Build high-quality backlinks
Backlinks are links from other websites to your website. Google uses them as a measure of your site’s value and trustworthiness.
Obtain backlinks from reputable and relevant sources. Offer good content to other websites that can be used with your name and website address on it (e.g write guest posts), and participate in online communities where your website link can be placed.
Having Facebook and Neighbourly accounts — with a focus on your business keywords and with your website address listed — works well for New Zealand small businesses for good search engine rankings.
Optimise your website for mobile devices
Make your website responsive (mobile-friendly) for a seamless user experience. Test mobile-friendliness and make necessary adjustments. Most WordPress themes automatically make your site responsive but you may still have to adjust the margins, padding and other elements on blocks.
Use Google Maps
Get your business on Google maps. Google maps appear at the top of search results and a business visible on the map gets very prominent visibility.
Here are case studies of Google maps and SEO that we successfully worked on.
Monitor and analyse performance
Use analytics tools to track metrics such as organic traffic, bounce rate, and session duration. Analyse the data and identify areas for improvement.
Google Analytics is a good tool to learn. But a simple and effective starting point for beginners is to log on to your web hosting, and go to Metrics to view them or set up a web stats plugin to view on your website’s dashboard.
Here’s a good SEO tool for beginners
SEOPress is a super WordPress plugin that helps you set up your WordPress website’s SEO. It is easy to use and understand and has all the features you’ll need for SEO success.
Conclusion
Mastering basic Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) will boost your website’s visibility in search engines and attract more organic traffic. There are many reputable plugins that beginners to SEO can choose from in WordPress to guide you in setting up your website’s SEO.